Background: There are a number of illustrated books like this
published during the Nazi era. They were large books in which one pasted
photographs received as premiums. My copy of this one brought the number
of copies in print to 2,450,000. This essay by Hitlerís architect Albert
Speer discusses the Führerís passion for buildings. The pictures accompanying
the chapter are available on a separate page.

The Führerís Buildings

by Albert Speer

Heads of state have often encouraged the arts, and in particular the
building arts. The Rococo princes of the eighteenth century built impressive
palaces and gardens, giving architects of that day the chance to exercise
their creativity.

The Führer, too, is a head of state who builds, but in an entirely
different sense. His major buildings that are beginning to appear in many
cities are an expression of the essence of the movement. They are intended
to endure for millennia and are part of the movement itself. The Führer
created this movement, came to power because of its strength, and even
today determines the smallest details of its structure. He does not build
in the manner of earlier heads of state who were prosperous contract-givers
or patrons; he must build as a National Socialist. Just as he determines
the will and nature of the movement, so also he determines the simplicity
and purity of its buildings, their strength of expression, the clarity
of the thinking, the quality of the material, and most importantly, the
new inner meaning and content of his buildings.

Building is not merely a way of passing time for the Führer,
rather a serious way of giving expression in stone to the will
of the National Socialist movement.

It is unique in German history that at decisive moments the
Führer concerned himself not only with the larger questions
relating to the worldview and politics of the new era, but simultaneously
and with the knowledge of an expert began to build monuments
in stone that will express his political will and cultural ability
in the coming millennia.

After long centuries of confusion, these buildings express
a clarity and strength that will result in an entirely new style
of architecture.

From his youth, the Führer was as interested in questions
of architecture as of social policy, as a passage he wrote in
1924 in Mein Kampf shows:

As my interest in social issues developed, I began to study
thoroughly. It was a new and previously unknown world for me.
It was natural that I also followed my passion for architecture.
Next to music, it seemed to me the queen of the arts. Working
to understand it was not “work” for me, rather a great
pleasure. I could read or draw until late into the night without
ever becoming weary. My faith increased that after many years
my dreams would become reality. I was firmly convinced that I
would win fame as a builder.

He explains in Mein Kampf how important these
impressions of his years in Vienna were:

During this period I developed a picture of the world and
a world view that became the granite foundation of my actions.
I have needed to make only a few additions to the views I formed
then, but no changes.

The opposite, in fact.

I believe today that the general outline of a personís thinking
is determined in his youth, as far as such thinking ever develops.

The Führer never gave up his youthful love for the building
arts. War and revolution, however, so shook the governmental
and national life of Germany that Hitler, who had become increasingly
concerned with political questions as a soldier, decided to become
a politician.

He said: “Would it not be ridiculous to build houses
under such circumstances?”

He was completely serious about becoming a politician, but it was a difficult
decision to leave the architecture he loved. He remained true to it, and
continued thinking about it. Today, too, it remains his great love.

In the first exciting years of his political struggle, he was as interested
in the symbolic expressions of the movement as in its structure. He developed
the swastika flag  and thereby the national flag of the German people.
He developed the partyís eagle symbol  and thereby the symbol of
the Third Reich. He proposed the symbols of the SA and the SS, and developed
the original format of his numerous mass meetings. He also laid out the
ideas that today guide the construction of all the buildings at the Reich
Party Rally grounds in Nuremberg.

Through numerous discussions, he laid out not only the broad
outlines of the party rallies, but also spent hours developing
the precise guidelines for the appearance of the individual formations
of the party, for the parades with flags and the decorations
of individual pillars. People in Nuremberg even today preserve
the Führerís sketches and drawings from this period.

In times of tension when he devotes his full energy to his
great goals, time spent with the arts is not “work,”
but “delight.”

At the proper time, fate introduced him to Paul Ludwig Troost,
with whom a close friendship soon developed. Professor Troost
had an architectural impact on him similar to the influence Dietrich
Eckart had on his political thinking.

The first building that these two men worked on was also the first and
still small building of the movement, the “Brown House” on Brienner
Street in Munich. It was only a matter of remodeling, though as the Führer
often said later, it was a major endeavor for the party at the time.

One can already see here the characteristics of the buildings that followed
after the seizure of power: austere and plain, but never monotonous. It
was simple and clear, with no false decoration. Decorations were few,
but each was in its proper place. The material, form, and lines were elegant.

The plans for the remodeling came from the Professor Troostís same simple
studio on a back street in Munich, from which plans later came for the
Königsplatz in Munich, the Museum of German Art, and many of the
Führerís other buildings. The Führer never reviewed the plans
for these important buildings in his office.

For years he visited Professor Troost in his free time. There,
free from his political duties, he was able to submerge himself
fully in the plans. The Führer was interested not only in
the general plans, but also in every detail, every material used,
and much was improved as the result of his suggestions. The Führer
has often said that these hours of common planning were his happiest
hours and gave him the deepest satisfaction. They gave him new
strength for his other plans. Here he had the chance to devote
himself to his buildings in the few free hours that his political
duties left him.

In the years before the takeover, Hitler discussed the buildings
he planned to build with Troost. During the winter of 1931/32,
they discussed the future work on Munichís Königsplatz,
resulting in many beautiful proposals. Before the takeover of
power, the final layout of the square had been decided.

The Glass Palace burned down in Munich in 1932. In the midst
of all his other concerns, the Führer had to worry about
the then governmentís bland proposal to replace it, a plan that
was begun before he took power. When one compares the original
model with that of Troostís current “Museum of German Art,”
one sees more clearly than anywhere else how the ideas of the
Führer influence his buildings.

Until his death, Paul Ludwig Troost was the Führerís
irreplaceable architect. Troost understood how to give his ideas
the proper architectural form.

In his major speech at the cultural session of the at the
1935 Reich Party Rally, the Führer gave Professor Troost
the highest praise a contemporary architect could receive:

We should be filled with pride that the greatest German architect
since Schinkel has built his first and unfortunately only monuments
for the new Reich and for Germany. They will stand as stone memorials
of a noble and truly Germanic architecture.

It gives the Führer pleasure to see the plans for a building, but
it is as great a joy to see the buildings going up.

When he visits the site of a building project, accompanied often by only
a few aides, he is a complete expert. His technical questions about the
foundation, the strength of the walls, and construction difficulties are
clear and always address the unsolved problems. After the experts have
doubted that a solution to a problem can be found, he often makes a proposal,
though unlike anything else, always proves a clear and easy solution.

Each new step, each new detail in a building wins his thorough
attention and approval. In all his pleasure in the details, he
never forgets the overall characteristics that all his buildings
display.

The Führerís buildings use hand-hewn natural stone. Natural
stone and Nordic bricks are our most durable building materials.
Although they are more expensive in the short term, in the long
term they are the most economical. Durability is always the most
important principle. The buildings of our Führer will speak
of the greatness of our age to future millennia. As the eternal
buildings of the movement rise in the various cities of Germany,
they will be buildings of which people can be proud. They will
know that these buildings belong to everyone, and therefore to
each individual. The Führerís buildings will determine a
cityís nature, not department stores, administrative buildings,
banks, and corporations.

The Führer had this to say about the cities of the past
and future:

In the 19th century our cities began to lose the character of cultural
centers and became simply human settlements.

When Munich was a city of 60,000, it wanted to be one of the
major German centers of culture. Today nearly every industrial
city claims this honor, usually without being able to show any
significant accomplishments of its own. They are nothing more
than collections of houses and apartment buildings. How can such
an insignificant place have any appeal? No one will have particular
loyalty to a city that lacks any individuality at all, that avoids
anything resembling art.

Even the big cities are becoming poorer in real works of art
even as they increase in population.

The modern era has done nothing to increase the cultural level
of our big cities. All the glory and treasures of our cities
are the inheritance of the past.

Our big cities today have no towering monuments that dominate
the area and that are symbols of their era. The cities of antiquity
were different. Each has a particular monument in which it took
pride. The character of the cities of antiquity came not from
private buildings, rather from the communityís buildings which
were constructed not for their age, but for eternity. They reflected
not the wealth of a single owner, but the greatness and significance
of the community.

The Germanic Middle Ages exemplified the same principle, though
in a different artistic form. The Gothic cathedral fulfilled
the same purpose as the Acropolis or the Pantheon.

If Berlin were to suffer the fate of Rome, posterity would
think the characteristic expressions of our culture to be the
department stores of some Jews or the hotels of some businessmen.

Our cities today lack a towering symbol of the community,
and one cannot therefore be surprised that oneís own city also
lacks such a symbol.

One has to see the Führerís major buildings at the Königsplatz,
the Museum of German Art in Munich, and the party rally buildings in Nuremberg
from this perspective. They are a beginning, but an important one. In
the housing projects of the Führer, too, we are at the beginning of
new developments.

It is natural that one first thinks of the big projects when
one considers the Führerís building projects.

But one must know that these projects do not exhaust the Führerís
activities.

The very opposite.

We know from his speeches the importance Hitler puts on improving
the social conditions of every German such that they will be
able to take pride in the communityís larger accomplishments.
The Führer made clear the importance of housing in Mein
Kampf. He wrote:

I learned quickly what I had previously not understood: The
nationalization of a people requires the creation of healthy
social conditions as a foundation for the individualís education.

Official statistics show the increase in new and remodeled
dwellings in the Reich:

1932: 159,121

1933: 202,113

1934: 319,439

These figures show more plainly than words the rise in good
housing under the Führerís government. This trend will continue
and increase significantly once “the projects necessary
for our security have been completed, buildings that are necessary
and which cannot be postponed.”

Then the monuments of National Socialism will tower like the cathedrals
of the Middle Ages over healthy workers’ apartments and new factories

The tasks before us are immense, but the Führer gave us all courage
though his words at the cultural session of the Reich party rally:

Men will rise to such great tasks. We have no right to doubt
that if the Almighty gives us the courage to strive for immortality,
he will also give our people the strength to create for eternity.